When you are developing Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, it is a good practice to make each task or transformation as dynamic as possible. To do this, you can use the new features in SQL Server 2012, such as parameters and project-level connection managers, or you can use the package configurations that were first made available in the package deployment model in earlier versions of SQL Server. This chapter discusses both possibilities.

Exam objectives in this chapter:

Extract and Transform Data

Define connection managers.

Load Data

Implement package logic by using SSIS variables and parameters.

When you are developing Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, it is a good practice to make each task or transformation as dynamic as possible. This enables you to move your packages from one environment to another (for example, from development to a test environment, and then to a production environment) without opening and changing the package. You can also configure your packages to set different properties at run time.

To do this, you can use the new features in SQL Server 2012, such as parameters and project-level connection managers, or you can use the package configurations that were first made available in the package deployment model in earlier versions of SQL Server. This chapter discusses both possibilities for designing and configuring your package to dynamically set values at run time. Using dynamic packages eliminates the need to make changes as you move from one environment to the other or to open the project when you want to run your packages using different property or variable values.